Spirits in the Snow House

A good DJ mix or podcast is a special thing. I've been making mixtapes and mixes for over twenty years so I'm no stranger to the things that are going to make a mix a bit more memorable than a simple collection of tracks.
In my role as podcast producer for Little White Earbuds I get to hear some amazing mixes, though to be honest, with the amount of music I try and listen to during the week - what with new promos and my own discoveries I come across there is usually very little time to listen to things that aren't somehow part of my work. Last week I came across a mix by Transounds and was instantly patting myself on the back for taking the time to listen to their latest mix, because it contained everything that - for me, makes a mix more than memorable, but something that you want to keep coming back to again and again.

For a start the scope of this mix, Spirits in the Snow House, is ambitious and pulled off with aplomb. It incorporates a bunch of tracks I know and artists I am familiar with, and then a bunch more I had never heard from artists I was unaware of. And that is part of what I have always loved about a good mix, the fact that it will introduce you to new artists. Anyways I could bang on about it some more, or you could just check it out and see for yourself.
If you want to hear more from Transounds, you can check out their monthly podcast for London Fields Radio http://www.londonfieldsradio.com/shows/transounds/

That Feeling

One of my favourite movies ever is Paris, Texas. It's expansive and haunting and its simple emotions are in plain sight of all who watch it. Never mind that someone as wizened and gnarled as Harry Dean Stanton could have gotten even close to the gorgeous Nastassja Kinski, it's a beautiful story. The dialogue in the peep show scene is a real heartbreaker, and I've always wanted to make a track about it. So I did. Here's the result

Why Porn Soundtracks Blow

When it comes to the history of cinema there are scant few among us who cannot recall the era defining soundtracks to such great films as Saturday Night Fever, The Harder They Come, Pulp Fiction or Trainspotting. Because for the serious music lover, life can be archived by its soundtrack. Perhaps the first time you heard My Bloody Valentine or Public Enemy, you knew where you were, what you were doing, how it made you feel. It is there as we go through periods of huge change, as we grow and learn, as we laugh and cry. It's there for many the first time we kiss someone, the first time we have sex.